Some tentative peace overtures were offered to Shona paramount chiefs before the imperial forces were ordered to leave Rhodesia at the end of November in 1896 writes Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010) which The Patriot is serialising.

CECIL JOHN RHODES physically checked the progress of the war in Mashonaland, and with a euphoria informed by peace developments in Matabeleland, he cabled Earl Grey from the middle of Mashonaland on November 10 1896 and made a policy statement, declaring:
“There are still two or three Mashona chiefs left in caves in granite kopjes but it appears to me they will be a matter for police rather than a large force.”
Some tentative peace overtures were offered to Shona paramount chiefs before the imperial forces were ordered to leave Rhodesia at the end of November in 1896.
But they were not genuine negotiations. ‘They were edgy, rather comic affairs,’ as in the case between Major Jenner and Paramount Chief Chikwaka which ‘was conducted by shouting over a distance of 200 yards’. (Ranger T.O. 1967: p. 285)
However, it was still on the basis of Rhodes’s observation that General Carrington concluded:
“After full inquiry, I am of the opinion that the rebellion is at an end throughout Mashonaland.”
Subsequently, on November 29 1896, following five months of intense operations against Shona First Chimurenga warriors, Lieutenant Colonel Alderson’s imperial force left Rhodesia for Beira rather prematurely, also partly due to the shortage of food supplies which had severely constrained the imperial force’s operations. (Hole, rpt. 1975:74)
By December 1896, General Carrington had moved all imperial forces out of Mashonaland, leaving only ‘100 to make-up for the the shortfall in the ranks of the new police’. (Ranger T.O. 1967: p. 286)
The Chartered Company undertook to finish off whatever remained of First Chimurenga warriors in 1897. The BSA Police’s modus operandi (which would have Catholic support) was one of ‘military blockade and harassment’, a strategy which General Carrington had employed against Ndebele warriors in the Matopo Hills, in 1896. (Ranger, 1967: p.257)
The daunting task of clearing Shona people from the Highveld in order to make way for European occupation was to begin in January 1897.
The Catholic Church advocates Scorched Earth Policy
In an intelligence report to the BSA Police on February 15 1897, the Catholic clergy, through Father Biehler at Chishawasha, wrote:
“Our mode of fighting is not the proper one for Mashonas… It seems to me that the only way of doing anything at all with these natives is to starve them, destroy their lands and kill all that can be killed.” (Ranger, 1967: p.295)
The import of this report is that if Father Biehler, a Catholic priest, held such strong and extremely shocking genocidal views, then, the ordinary white settler in Rhodesia, including those in the BSA Police, must have held worse views against the Shona people and their land. Such genocidal views, not surprisingly, formed part of the new BSA Police policy and strategy to dislodge Shona people from their ancestral lands.
There had undoubtedly been more to Rhodes’ observation and recommendation than met the eye. The policy of genocide, such as the Catholic clergy was advocating and which the BSAC adopted, could not have been implementable in the presence of the imperial forces.
It was, therefore, imperative for Rhodes, Martin and Grey to convince the Imperial Force commander, General Carrington, to move his force out of Mashonaland through falsehoods despite the continued resistance of Shona warriors on the ground.
Thus, the imperial forces had moved out of Rhodesia in December 1896, it was decided that 1897 would be the year to clear Shona people from their ancestral lands and to resettle them away from any potential white settler-claimed land on the Mashonaland Highveld.
Suppression of First Chimurenga and the creation of ‘Native Reserves’
By 1896 the land already alienated to European settlers by Leander Starr Jameson in Mashonaland totalled more than 20 042 556 acres (8 019 829 hectares). In Matabeleland, such land totalled
8 890 000 acres (or 3 556 000 hectares).
The agreed new policy of the BSA Company at the end of 1896 was that ‘Native Reserves’ were to be created throughout the country for the period of 1897 and this policy was formalised in 1898 through the Order-in-Council of 1898. (Palmer, 1977:58)
In Mashonaland, the creation of Native Reserves as from 1897, was in the end, very intimately linked to the suppression of First Chimurenga in 1896. (Palmer, 1977: 67)
Unlike in Matabeleland where Ndebele people had been allowed to return to ‘locations’ on their ancestral lands, in Mashonaland, no such ‘locations’ existed. Shona people living on land claimed by white settlers had to be moved by force of arms and driven away from their ancestral lands into new predetermined Native Reserves. (Grey, rpt. 1975: p.17)
The Shona were to be cleared from land already alienated to white settlers; land on the Gold Belt, land near existing or projected railways and land which could easily be defended by the First Chimurenga warriors in the event of another rising. (Palmer, 1977: 67)
Accordingly, in the Salisbury (Harare) and Marandellas (Marondera) Districts, the BSA Police, under command of Lieutenant Colonel De Moleyns, supported by Major Gosling, launched attacks against Paramount Chiefs Seke, Svosve, Chikwaka, Chinamhora, Mangwende, Kunzvi-Nyandoro, Mashonganyika and Chihota as from January 1897.
Attack on Paramount Chief Seke’s village and the creation of Seke
Native Reserve
On January 22 1897, a force of 70 BSA Police and 30 ‘friendlies’, under Major Gosling, used 7-pounder and Maxim guns to attack and burn to ashes, Paramount Chief Seke’s village, in the presence of Earl Grey, the Administrator of Rhodesia and Taberer, the Chief Native Commissioner of Mashonaland.
The people’s food stores were either burnt to ashes or looted. All crops in the fields were destroyed, thus depriving them of any food and shelter for the rest of 1897. (Inskipp, rpt. 1975: p.76)
Then, after being deprived of virtually everything, Paramount Chief Seke’s people were driven into the newly created Seke Native Reserve.
Attacks on Paramount Chiefs Chikwaka, Makumbi and Chinamhora
From Seke, Major Gosling’s next victims were Paramount Chiefs Chikwaka, Makumbi and Chinamhora.
On February 16 1897 dynamite was used to completely blow up Paramount Chief Chikwaka’s fortress. (Ranger, 1967: p. 302)
Villages were burnt down, food stores either destroyed or looted and all crops in the fields were slashed, thus depriving Paramount Chief Chikwaka’s people of any food and shelter for the rest of 1897.
When Paramount Chief Chikwaka and his neighbours Makumbi and Chinamhora remained resolute and defiant, Major Gosling attacked all three on March 1 1897. He was now reinforced by a company equipped with 7-pounder and Maxim guns and the attack was made in the presence of Earl Grey and Lieutenant Colonel De Moleyns, commander of the BSA Police.
After four days of fierce and intense fighting, Lieutenant Colonel De Moleyns took charge of the assault and completely destroyed Paramount Chiefs Makumbi and Chinamhora’s villages.
People’s crops still in the fields were slashed down and all food stores were either destroyed or looted. (Inskipp, rpt. 1975: p.77)
The starving chiefs and their people were driven further north, into the newly-created Chikwaka, Makumbi and Chinamhora ‘Native Reserves’.